Why are we wasting so much of Australia?

‘Social distancing’ was the motto of 2020. However, with around 90 per cent of Australia’s population crammed into 0.22 per cent of Australia’s landmass, perhaps in 2021 we should start thinking about ways we could decentralise the Australian population.

In less than a week, on Australia Day, we’ll be singing “We’ve golden soil and wealth for toil”. Now is the perfect time to be contemplating not just why don’t we do more with it, but how.

In 1901, one-third of Australia’s population lived in the capital cities, today that percentage has doubled.  Australia is big, 32 United Kingdoms big. Australia is only slightly smaller than the United States (it’s 1.2 times larger than the 48 contiguous states). Yet…